SIR THOMAS MORE:
I am commanded by the King to be brief, and since I am the King’s obedient subject, brief I will be.

This was sort of like a whole lot of other games that we’ve seen lately, so I won’t spend too long on the particulars. Julio Teheran was mostly excellent. He had a very good slider and a pretty good fastball — he occasionally missed up, and notably plunked Matt Kemp, but when he missed he missed out of the strike zone. He didn’t give up a single home run, which for him counts as serious progress.

Then he went out in the 8th inning and promptly gave up two singles and a walk before Fredi went out and got him. The next part took forever to watch and was excruciatingly painful. So here’s what happened:

• Dana Eveland, a lefty, came in. Justin Upton, a righty, came in to pinch hit. Christian Bethancourt completely whiffed on an inside pitch — it looked like Eveland missed his spot, but it was a passed ball and a run scored. Eveland proceded to walk Upton, loading the bases again. Fredi yanked him.
• Nick Masset, a righty, came in. He struck out the only man he faced. Fredi yanked him.
• Luis Avilan, a lefty, came in. He walked in a run. Fredi yanked him.
• David Aardsma, a righty, came in. He struck out the first man he faced. Then, as the next batter was taking a swing, Bethancourt reached his glove too far forward and the batter’s bat hit his glove — catcher’s interference, automatic base, everyone advances, a run scores, tie ballgame. Aardsma got the next guy out. That was the end of the 8th.
• At the beginning of the 9th, Fredi put in Grilli, who threw a clean frame.

Now, I am going to criticize some of the decisions that Fredi made, but before I do, I am going to speak generally to everyone on this board. Stop the personal attacks. I do not want to ban anyone: Mac was incredibly sparing with the banhammer, and I have no desire to use it more frequently than he did. But the threads are filling with personal attacks and it is exhausting for all of us. Stop.

In the 8th inning, Fredi used five pitchers to pitch to five batters, and altogether they allowed three runs. Two of the runs were partly attributable to poor defense by Bethancourt, and one was technically unearned, so while Teheran was charged with all four runs he still gets credit for a quality start. But the Braves entered the inning up 4-1, and they ended the inning with a tie game and with almost no one left in the bullpen. It was, to say the least, both an inefficient and an ineffective use of resources.

Obviously, the bullpen is wretched. But why pull Masset after he struck out the only batter he faced? Why pull Aardsma after he retired the only two batters he faced? (He didn’t actually retire the second one, who reached base via an error. But neither of them reached safely.)

And, most importantly: with a 4-1 lead in the 8th inning, with no one out and the bases loaded, especially considering that we have the worst bullpen in the league, why did Fredi use his worst five relievers before turning to Jason Grilli?

100 comments on “San Diego 6, Braves 4”

Great job Alex. Your questions about Fredi’s use of the bullpen are well placed. That said, some feel my similar questions are misplaced, and while I don’t wish the banhammer upon myself, others do. So to continue my question from the previous thread, if there is a substantial cohort (not even a majority) who wish I would no longer post here, I’ll comply. Just make it plain, either through a poll or a showing in the main thread and I’ll be gone–no banhammer needed. just speak out. This is a great forum, and the last thing I want to do is ruin that for the mass of participants here.

I fall firmly in the Mac Don’t ban until absolutely necessary camp. So, I say keep posting. But, I have to suggest that you took what the bodyguard comment waaaay too seriously, and then Would. Not. Drop. It. (Not that others weren’t also Not. Dropping. It. Either.)

Anyway, this site is one of the most reasonable spots around, and I think we, as posters, usually show respect for the person behind the screen name. If a little good natured joshing feels to you like a personal slur (even if you consider it in poor taste), and you can’t let it go, then I have to ask why do you keep coming back? But, if you can handle the occasion joke in poor taste, and let it roll off your back, then I for one welcome you. (And anyone else who loves The Laundry, thinks Hank Aaron is the bestest player still alive, and believes that Melky Cabrera is the Devil).

Now that I have exhausted my monthly ration of Capital Letters (and Parentheses), let’s head to New York and win some against IWOTM.

I may come across at times as a Fredi apologist, but I’m not. My point is that most of his decisions can reasonably be defended and his game management skills are not my biggest concern. My biggest concern is the way he controls the team. I continue to have some concerns with that.

That being said, Fredi’s use of the bullpen was indefensible. I know he has very little to work with, but 5 pitchers in one inning? I think we would have had to throw the game to save bullpen arms if the game went much longer. Terrible management!

Betty will be better. Let’s not cast the die just yet. I too would like to see him play much, much more. Just like pitchers need time to adjust at the big league level, same holds true for position players. Especially catchers.

This team is what it is and Fredi is at a disadvantage for sure. However, Fredi does not present a unique differentiator to this team that I can tell. He’s completely dispensable. That’s one thing if we’re talking about the manager of your neighborhood kickball team – – but when we are talking about the skipper of one of 31 MLB teams, I’d like to think we could do better.

@2 I don’t care if you continue to post here or not, but I am sick of seeing all of the personal attacks that have sprung up over the past couple of weeks and echo all who are calling for them to stop. The tone is wearisome. The AJC blogs exists for all of those who enjoy and would like to participate in “debates” of that nature. I know Mac at various times said if you wouldn’t say it to someone’s face, or in front of your mother, then don’t say it here, either.

This is a sports blog, so disagreements and debates are going to happen–frankly, it’d be pretty boring without them. Ad hominem attacks, however, only serve to weaken your own argument, and generally make people who agree with your viewpoint want to side against you. This team gives us plenty of things to fuss about; there is no need to start in on each other, too.

I hope he can be better. I have really never understood the fanfare the organization has for him. His bat has never been all that good. We heard how he was a defensive wiz, but he looks pretty bad behind the plate. His arm is great, but lots of guys have great arms.

It seemed like the club though he was ready this winter and made moves to confirm that. Then they only play him sparingly?

So I in closing, I don’t understand the hype and then I don’t understand the way they are using him. It makes little sense.

I wonder how drug testing/suspensions work. Did Atlanta know that O’Dowd was about to get suspended and they signed Lavarnaway as a result? I wonder if there’s a private release of the results and appeal process, giving the team time to make an adjustment.

Bethancourt is only 23. His bat will inevitably get better, and if we didn’t trade Gattis, he’d probably still be in AAA. If AJP was hitting better, he’d also not be getting as exposed as he is. The arm is there, the framing and blocking ability is there, but it certainly appears that there are mental lapses in judgment and focus issues. The passed balls and mistakes are not a reflection of skills but of focus and maturity. If he could spend the year at AAA, he could play less games and get bigger and stronger, and also work on refining his game and hopefully developing the maturity to not make the mental mistakes that have cost us.

Could Lavarnway/AJP give us a RH/LH platoon that could produce a .250/.320/.380 line with adequate defense and get Bethancourt consistency, less stressful environment, and better coaching in AAA? Then he can come up next year get another crack at it. Sounds like a rebuilding approach to me!

Another catcher note: go back and look at David Ross’ stats when he was in Atlanta. Boy, were we spoiled! He also immediately lost 100 OPS points when he left ATL, so we’re not the ones torpedoing everyone’s careers. Just some.

It’s Bethancourt by a hair, if you like BR, or Gattis by a hair, if you like fangraphs. Both have been better than AJP this season.

For all his lapses, Bethancourt still grades out well on defense. The lapses may well be due to being 23 years old or having long layoffs between starts. Those can be improved upon with experience…or Adderall. Either way, he’s going to be useful catcher after he takes a few lumps, and I’d prefer to get the lumps out of the way this season.

He even gets snarky: “Cunniff retired the first two batters he faced in the sixth and then handed the ball to Avilan because well you know despite what the stats say, you have to create lefty-on-lefty matchups.”

@39, managing a dumpster fire bullpen is orders of magnitude more difficult than managing a bullpen with 4 elite relievers. Moves that used to cause minor gripes were smoothed over by Oventbrel; now, they are magnified.

I just can’t shut up about Mallex Smith. He had two more multi-hit games the last 2 days and now he’s all .350/.427/.426 with 19/24 SB. Hitting .414 in June

Rio Ruiz is hitting .357 in June after an abysmal first 2 months of AA.

Once again, I don’t necessarily think Fredi is a very good manager, but it’s kinda hard to criticize a decision-maker by using Blackjack as the analogy. Saying that his bullpen decisions are like deciding on hitting or staying on 15 or 16 is all but saying that the decisions can go either way. I’ve never thought someone who had a good run on Blackjack to be an elite strategist.

I think Fredi played the lefty, righty match-ups to an extreme yesterday, and that clearly bit him. I would have probably left Masset in to face the lefty, but if Avilan gets an out there, then he looks like a genius. Then you go to Aardsma, finish the inning, and the Braves still have the lead. Fredi’s over-active trigger finger exacerbated the issue of the pitchers and catcher not being able to get he job done. You put it all together and it leads to a cluster of ineptitude, but I don’t think Fredi bears ultimate responsibility there.

I’d pick one nit with Bowman’s analysis. Avilan has had reverse splits this season, probably due to sample size. He has been a little tougher on lefties than righties for his career (.569 OPS vs .611), and either is better than he’d expect Cunniff to fare.

The more important point with Avilan is that when you only have 2 or 3 good relievers, you can’t afford to use one of them as a LOOGY. Besides which, Avilan isn’t a LOOGY–he can get out righties, too.

@44, having Eveland face Justin Upton with the bases loaded cannot possibly be the best Fredi could come up with

@54, I think it depends entirely on how the team wants to handle him (and on how healthy Maybin remains). As long as Maybin reamins on the field, the team has every reason to take it easy with Mallex. If he keeps hitting .350 at Double-A, there will be a real incentive to give him a late-season taste of Triple-A over the summer. But once a guy’s in Double-A, he’s fair game for a situational callup to the big leagues. It’s worth remembering that Maybin is owed $8 million next year, and he has a $9 million club option for 2017, which gives the Braves some flexibility.

Has anyone seen anything to suggest that Mallex Smith projects to be even a league average defensive centerfielder? All the scouting reports I’ve read give him at best a 45 arm and 50-55 fielding despite all of the raw speed.

Fangraphs doesn’t like Maybin’s defense much this year (he’s looked pretty damn good to me), but he’s put up 17+ career dWAR and it’s hard to imagine Smith being much of an upgrade on defense.

@37 – yes, I thought “No-No” was quite good. I’d never actually seen footage of the actual no-hitter game before, so that in itself was neat, but the film did a really good job of placing him in a broader social context… having come along well after his career, I had no idea what a cultural lightning rod he’d been. There are great stories, too, like Muhammad Ali visiting the Pirates’ clubhouse after a game and Dock dancing around & trying to spar with him a little bit–and then with just a flick of the Champ’s wrist, getting laid out.

@60, I haven’t, but Mallex in LF is a viable option, too. I mean, compared to Gomes. I guess we’ll see though. I seem to remember Jace Peterson being a middling fielding prospect but he’s been better than advertised.

67 — Yeah, they have been talking about how they aren’t planning to move Peterson off 2nd. Wouldn’t surprise me to see Peraza traded this offseason. He’s blocked at CF too, and Mallex Smith is on the depth chart there too.

They both seem like super-versatile utility players to me. I think they will be a positive to any team, but they aren’t going to push us into the playoffs alone. If we field an all defense/mighty-mite team we better have a ton of good pitching.

I used to play golf, still have a couple of bags full of sticks. It got to the point where frustration outweighed enjoyment, so I put up the clubs. Now when I get the urge to play, I grab a hammer and pound my bare big toe. It’s as much fun and a heck of a lot quicker.

I’m starting to feel the same way about the Braves, but some addictions are not as easy to end.

If you let Teheran eat innings the first few months and stick with the plan to provide an extra day of rest whenever possible, you're less likely to end up in a position where you may need to limit the younger arms down the stretch